


When We Were Young

by theoriginalcheeesecake



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, angsty fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-19 11:43:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5966170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoriginalcheeesecake/pseuds/theoriginalcheeesecake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been 120 years since they saw each other, and it hurts. Until it doesn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When We Were Young

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Writerwithagoal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writerwithagoal/gifts).



> Happy Valentine's Day! This should be read in conjunction with the song When We Were Young by Adele. Though the song should start around a third of the way through... it'll be obvious when. Enjoy!

Caroline always found time to be the most peculiar thing.

She found living through time, and experiencing history as it happened more peculiar still.

But, perhaps, what Caroline felt was the most peculiar of all, were the things that stood the tests of time.

St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, Neuschwanstein Castle if she thought about the old things. And then Stonehenge, the Great Wall of China, and the Colosseum if she went even older.

But, as Caroline sat in the tray back of her vintage Cadillac, the evening air blowing through her curls, her gaze fixed on the massive screen above her, she couldn’t believe that drive in cinemas, of all things, survived the ages.

But maybe she shouldn’t have been surprised, no matter what changed, humanity still craved two things: a peace and an escape when there was none. Both things provided by a quiet outdoor movie. She guessed vampires craved those things as well.

As the movie moved into its second hour, Caroline curled up under her blanket, so only her head poked out the top. She reminisced on all the times she’d seen the movie, and all the stability it offered her.

She felt her eyes grow wet for Scarlett as Rhett frankly didn’t give a damn, but her heart soared nonetheless.

It had been a beautiful evening.

Quiet moments of peace were rare for Caroline, to entangled was she in her new life as a leading cancer research scientist. It really was a perfect occupation for her. She was passionate about it, and spent so much time cloistered in her lab that people rarely noticed that she had not aged in the past 65 years since she’d begun her research.

She had taken that week off, however. She always took a weekend off around that time of year.

Christmas time she could deal with, just, Thanksgiving too. If she was honest, holidays hadn’t held much significance for her since her family had passed away, and she’d been left alone.

But very first few weeks of spring, she found herself restless, reckless, hankering for something _else_ to do. Something new. Something – _anything_ – to distract her mind from the fact that every significant loss in her life had happened around that time of year. 

Her husband and children – because no matter what screwed up twist of fate led to them being her family, they were still her family – had been lost in a fire 70 years ago. 

Her mother to cancer 50 years before that.

Only one year separated losing her mother, and losing _him_.

Despite that fact she knew she’d never _lost_ him in the same way she’d lost the others, watching him walk away all those years ago, knowing her was leaving because of her word, felt very much like real loss to her.

Her week was almost up, however, and the drive-in signalled Caroline’s last day of reprieve. But that was okay. She liked to keep busy.

Back at the small town hotel she was staying, she decided to indulge in a little nightcap before she attempted to sleep. A little booze never hurt anyone, especially not her.

She sat, for longer than she intended, gazing into the amber liquid. Her mind churned through all the moments when she’d been truly happy, and she let a small tear fall as she realised only one person she shared those times with remained alive, all the rest being taken by death many years before. 

Caroline was still sitting in her solitude, hankering for company, but revelling in her loneliness, when the bell over the door tinkled lightly, and a sharp bite of the cold outside air flurried in.

She didn’t look over, disinterested as she was, instead preferring to swallow her last mouthful and call for another, and continue the dance with emptiness that she’d been doing since for 65 years.

xxx

 Klaus was fuming, steam pouring from his ears.

This wasn’t how the evening was supposed to go. He was supposed to track down the newest doppelganger, and the latest Bennett witch – who were, coincidently, best friends apparently – and drag them, kicking and screaming, back to his home, where he would offer them both room, board, education and training, so long as they fulfilled their purposes in his grand scheme.

But, as usual, someone had interfered, the bloody doppelganger had turned, and the witch swore she would ‘never be a slave to a monster’. It was typical really, and very predictable. If his life had been a TV show, he would criticise the writers for recycling scripts. But it wasn’t, unfortunately. Perhaps if it had been, he would be able to bully them into dealing him a good hand for a change.

But no. He was stuck in the middle of nowhere, in a town that still had drive-ins. _Drive-ins_ , for heaven’s sake. So backward. 

Deciding he needed to massacre the town, Klaus stalked towards the bar, intending to drink himself stupid, before letting his bloodlust take over.

Walking into the place, though, Klaus felt an odd sensation sweep through him, though the high pitched tinkle of the bell above the door made him grit his teeth in irritation.

As he ordered his first drink, the opening chords of a new song began, and they heavily played along, plucking at the string of his heart as well as the string of a piano. It was odd, this kind of ballad always reminded him of _her_.

_Everybody loves the things you do._

He heard the speakers croon.

_From the way you talk, to the way you move._

Klaus let the words wash over him, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that this song was being played to torture him, a not-so-subtle reminder about how lonely he was.

 _Everybody here is watching you_.

Glancing around the bar, he suddenly caught sight of a long mane of hair. It was blonde, and in perfect curls that bounced with every step. But then it was gone, only moment later.

_‘Cause you feel like home_

Klaus shook himself, stupid man. He was seeing things. That was it, seeing her because he was thinking about her.

_You’re a dream come true_

“Three fingers of scotch,” Klaus called out to no one in particular. He needed to be drunk. Fast.

 _And if by chance you’re here alone_  

“Sorry,” a voice called back, as the bartender came into sight. “We’ve actually called last round.”

_Can I have a chance_

The bartender was pretty enough, with her dark hair and nut-brown skin, but Klaus was not in the business of taking no for an answer.

_Before I go_

“Three fingers of scotch,” he growled menacingly.

“I’m sorry sir,” she replied, apologetically, but also warily. “I’ll just grab my manager.”

_Cause I’ve been by myself all night long_

“Three fingers of scotch!” he roared, launching himself over the counter, pinning the waitress to the wall by her throat.

_Hoping you’re someone I used to know_

Suddenly, however, he was knocked off kilter, as a bottle was smashed into the back of his head cutting into his skin, followed swiftly by a second. They were thrown with such force, that one had lodged itself completely in his neck.

Snarling, fangs dropping and eyes flashing gold, he whirled around, fully intending on ripping the entire establishment limb from limb.

But his turning had revealed someone he’d never dreamed he’d see again.

_You look like a movie._

Her face was still the picture of perfection, like it had been memorialised on the big screen. Her hair was still blonde and curly, though now it was long – so long it passed her waist. Her eyes, which had been twinkling with a smile only moments before, now looked as though she’d seen a ghost.

_You sound like a song_

“Why don’t you pick on somebody your own size,” she said, a little tentatively, a little nervously, the perfect words, falling from her perfect lips, sounding as melodic as they had when they’d last met.

_My god this reminds me_

She was fixing him with a determined gaze, just like she used to in many days gone by.

_Of when we were young_

“Let’s get out of here,” she murmured, before turning on her heel and walking away.

_Let me photograph you in this light_

He watched her, in her beautiful glory, before following out the door quickly, the music fading away with the distance, neither of them bothering to clean up the mess they’d just made.

In the dim, twinkling light of the stars and moon, he could almost pretend she didn’t look so draw and worn. He could will himself to believe that, while her face _couldn’t_ change, that it _hadn’t_.

They walked in silence, until they were away from prying ears, and she turned to face him, her gaze full of such intensity he thought he might burst.

“This isn’t exactly how I thought we’d meet again,” he said, attempting to sound cocky, but not quite pulling it off, as he brushed a blonde curl from her beautiful face.

“Not how I pictured it either,” she said, a small smile gracing her lips, and his spirits couldn’t help but lift at her confession that she too had considered their reconciliation.

“It’s been a long time,” he whispered.

“It has,” she replied, fidgeting with the hem of her jacket. “It has.”

For a moment, their eyes bored into each other, and Caroline thought – or did she hope – that he would lean into her, and brush his lips against hers, to erase all the turbulence in her mind.

Anything to make her heart sing again.

But, as soon as the moment was there, it was gone, and Klaus pulled his gaze from hers.

“I didn’t know you’d be here?” she asked, looking at her feet, wondering – or was she hoping again – that, perhaps, he’d been looking for her.

“Just in the area love,” he replied. “I don’t fancy this side of the pond much these days.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

She winced at how stilted their conversation had become. She supposed that’s what happened after 120 years of no contact.

For the first time since she’d found him again, Caroline looked at him, really looked. He still looked exactly the same, his cherry lips, and storm coloured eyes. His cheek bones still looked like they would be able to cut paper, and he still looked picture perfect like her always had.

He let out a small laugh, maybe because he sensed the inherent awkwardness of the encounter, or maybe he’d noticed her appraisal. But the sounds sent jolts through her, and she couldn’t help but giggle herself, at the total coincidental lunacy of their meeting.

And suddenly it clicked, and Caroline was taken back to when she was young and hadn’t a clue about the world. Their laughter swelled, and there was nothing to stop it. They were just two star-crossed lovers, meeting for the first time in a long time.When he could melt her heart with a look, or a laugh, and a sentence.

And she wanted to preserve the precious moment, somehow, wrap it in bubble wrap to save it forever, because she didn’t know whether this would be the last moment that they might be like this. Exactly as they were before they realised they wouldn’t have worked back then. She would have been too young, too flighty. She wanted to experience the world and everything it had to offer before she could have found him.

But, somehow, they’d found each other. Somehow their cinematic moment was there, and it was theirs.

Their laughter died down to a tense – intense – silence. There was no sound but the thump of the hearts that didn’t beat, and the rushing of blood through their veins that wasn’t theirs.

Just as it had been the last time they met.

And Klaus leaned in, just like last time, while she leaned in too.

Though this time, when their lips met, it wasn’t fiery and passionate, it was soft and tender. Klaus could feel all the pain and betrayal she experienced since they last shared a kiss.

Their lips moved against each other savouring the perfection of the moment, until Klaus pulled away, roughly.

“No,” he said, gruffly, his face flushed from the intensity of what they’d just shared. “No, Caroline, I can’t do this.”

She looked so hurt, and Klaus wished he could take back what he had said. He’d never been good at expressing what he really wanted.

“Why?” she breathed, her brow creasing in the middle, just like it used to. 

“Because everything takes me back to when it was easy for us. When you were just there.” His voice was so vulnerable, more so than she’d ever thought possible.

“Klaus, I…” but she didn’t know what to say. How did you finish the a sentence like that?

“I can’t do this and have to walk away, like I did last time.”

With that, Klaus turned and began to walk away. At least this time he’d only have a soft kiss to agonise over, rather than a confession and their time on the forest floor.

As each of his steps took him further away, Caroline felt rooted to the spot. There was nothing stopping her this time. No friends, no family, and none of their judgements. She was older, she’d had her experience. What was her excuse this time?

And finally, the restraint she’d exercised many a time over the years, when she was desperate and needed someone who really knew her, snapped.

“Klaus,” she cried, sprinting after him, tears blooming in her eyes. She stopped in front of him, and let them fall, desperate to make him see she was ready.

She was finally ready to accept they were the same, to accept his offer of Paris, Rome and Tokyo, to finally be his last love.

“I am so mad I’m getting old,” she said. “It makes me reckless.” 

And with that she grabbed the collar of his jacket, and crushed her lips to his, fiery and passionate, and the peculiar concept of time seemed to stop. It was just the two of them in the whole world. After a few moments, they pulled away from each other, chests heaving, cheeks flushing, hearts pounding and Klaus rested his forever on hers, closing his eyes.

"I've missed you, my love," he breathed, and hated how the truth rung in the words. 

"I've missed you too," she whispered. "But I'm here now. Last love, right?"

His face broke into a joyous smile, and his arms encircled her, pulling her in for a tight hug, promising himself silently that he'd never let himself ruin this. She hugged him back with all the strength she could muster.

And it was perfect; much like it was when they were young.  

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I hope you enjoyed this! And I also hope I captured the song well enough. This was a little illusive to tell you the truth, but I hope I did it justice.


End file.
